The Menlo Park City Council will hold a special meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, to discuss what it can do about Menlo Park residents being pushed out of their homes due to rising housing costs and evictions, according to Mayor Rich Cline.
The meeting will be held in the Menlo Park council chambers at 701 Laurel St. in the Civic Center.
At the meeting, council members are expected to be presented with draft ordinances on two measures requested by Councilwoman Kirsten Keith: requiring landlords to give renters the chance to sign 12-month leases, and allowing renters to negotiate with landlords using a third-party mediator, in a process called mandatory nonbinding arbitration.
According to Mr. Cline, the meeting was moved up from the previously discussed January date to "(take) action on some items that we can do quickly - to help now," he said.
The two measures on the docket are considered by council members to be less controversial than other anti-displacement measures and could be implemented faster.
Meanwhile, Mr. Cline said, the city will collect data via a study Facebook will fund, as part of its agreement with the city when its expansion was approved Nov. 1. Facebook agreed to pay $350,000 to hire a consultant to conduct a "Housing Inventory and Local Supply Study" to look at nearby "conditions, occupancy and resident profiles" to help develop an "informed regional housing strategy," according to a staff report. Following the study, Facebook will pay $1.5 million toward setting up a "Housing Innovation Fund" and $1 million for a "Housing Preservation Fund."
The council may discuss other policies to address displacement, and what they could cost to implement, said Jim Cogan, the city's housing and economic development manager.
The meeting may include an update from SamTrans officials on the Dumbarton corridor study, said City Manager Alex McIntyre.
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